Tag: yuan

China’s central bank on Wednesday pumped a net 560 billion yuan ($83 billion) into its banking system — a record amount of money injected in one day — in a sign that the economy may be facing enormous stress. The yield on the 10-year Chinese government bond fell below 3.1 percent on Wednesday afternoon, its lowest in more than two years, according to financial database Wind. Yields fall when bond prices rise, and a decline in yields typically signals expectations of a slowdown in economic growth

China’s central bank on Wednesday pumped a net 560 billion yuan ($83 billion) into its banking system — a record amount of money injected in one day — in a sign that the economy may be facing enormous stress.

The yield on the 10-year Chinese government bond fell below 3.1 percent on Wednesday afternoon, its lowest in more than two years, according to financial database Wind. Yields fall when bond prices rise, and a decline in yields typically signals expectations of a slowdown in economic growth.

“At present, it is the peak of the tax period, and the total liquidity of the banking system is declining rather quickly,” the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its website. The central bank did not immediately respond to CNBC’s faxed request for comment on Wednesday’s record cash injection.

The Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar edged lower versus the dollar in early Asian trade, falling 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively. “Given the support we had seen in commodity currencies, it is reasonable to see profit booking. The dollar fell 1.5 percent versus the offshore yuan last week, its steepest weekly decline since January 2017 as investors’ fears of a sharp slowdown in the world’s second largest economy somewhat abated. Data on Friday showed that U.S. consumer prices in

The dollar rose against most of its peers on Monday, although heightened investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will not raise rates this year are most likely to cap the greenback’s gains.

The Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar edged lower versus the dollar in early Asian trade, falling 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.

Both currencies had gained around 1.5 percent versus the dollar last week as risk sentiment improved on hopes for both a U.S.-Sino trade deal and more aggressive stimulus from Chinese policymakers to support its ailing economy.

“Given the support we had seen in commodity currencies, it is reasonable to see profit booking. I expect the uptrend to resume soon,” said Michael McCarthy, chief markets strategist at CMC Markets.

The dollar fell 1.5 percent versus the offshore yuan last week, its steepest weekly decline since January 2017 as investors’ fears of a sharp slowdown in the world’s second largest economy somewhat abated.

“I expect the yuan to appreciate further. Markets had overestimated the degree of slowdown in China,” added McCarthy.

The dollar index was at 95.68, marginally higher in early Asian trade.

After a stellar 2018, in which the greenback gained 4.3 percent due to the U.S. central bank hiking rates four times, investors now expect the Fed to halt its monetary tightening policy.

Market participants think that worries of slowing domestic and global growth as well as tame U.S. inflation will make Fed policymakers hesitant to raise borrowing costs in the world’s largest economy.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated last week that the U.S. central bank has the ability to be patient on monetary policy given that inflation remains stable.

Data on Friday showed that U.S. consumer prices in December fell for the first time in nine months in December.

The euro fell around 0.1 percent to $1.1460. The single currency lost 0.3 percent on Friday after data showed that Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, was at risk of recession.

The yen was at 108.40, marginally stronger versus the greenback.

The British pound gained 0.15 percent to $1.2861 at the start of what is expected to be a highly volatile week.

Prime Minister Theresa May must win a vote in parliament on Tuesday to get her Brexit deal approved or risk a chaotic exit for Britain from the European Union. The numbers are not in May’s favor and her chances of winning the vote look extremely slim.

“The market is widely expecting the vote not to pass through parliament. Upside in sterling looks capped at $1.2940,” added CMC’s McCarthy.

Paul Ciana, the firm’s chief global technical strategist, highlighted the dollar versus the Chinese yuan on CNBC’s “”Futures Now” to show the strength of “risk on” (or high-yielding, risk-sensitive) assets. His big takeaway: The broader market rally has room to run because the dollar/yuan currency pair is in a downtrend. “We have a technical top in the U.S. dollar versus the Chinese yuan. The dollar versus the yuan has been trading at its weakest level since July. “We have a nice left shoulder,

His big takeaway: The broader market rally has room to run because the dollar/yuan currency pair is in a downtrend.

“We have a technical top in the U.S. dollar versus the Chinese yuan. Now, that’s a very important technical top to have because it means the dollar is weakening,” he said Thursday. “The lower that the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Chinese Yuan comes down, the more it is a sign, per say, that the trade agreements between the U.S. and China are going well.”

The dollar versus the yuan has been trading at its weakest level since July.

“We have a nice left shoulder, head and right shoulder that formed. That neckline was broken just the other day right in here. We’re now legging down not to one, but to a second new low,” said Ciana.

Apple’s latest iPhone models are facing huge discounts in China as retailers try to sell the struggling devices. That comes as the top-of-the-line Apple smartphones have posted poor China sales on what experts say are too-high prices for the world’s largest smartphone market and a lack of innovative features compared to local competitors like Huawei. Other third-party sellers on the site had the devices for even cheaper, offering flash sales to try to unload iPhones. Sunion, an Apple re-seller,

That comes as the top-of-the-line Apple smartphones have posted poor China sales on what experts say are too-high prices for the world’s largest smartphone market and a lack of innovative features compared to local competitors like Huawei. The technology giant itself acknowledged earlier this month that unexpectedly low sales in the Chinese market would likely lead to worse-than-anticipated first quarter revenues.

One of the most recent iPhone cost cuts in the country came from Suning, a large Chinese retailer, which changed the price of the 128GB version of the iPhone XR from 6,999 yuan ($1,036) to 5,799 yuan ($858) — a 1,200 yuan ($178) discount.

Other third-party sellers on the site had the devices for even cheaper, offering flash sales to try to unload iPhones. One seller had a 256GB version of the iPhone XS Max, Apple’s most premium device, for 9,699 yuan ($1,436), way below the U.S. firm’s official selling price of 10,999 yuan ($1,628) for that smartphone.

Still, that remains more expensive than in the U.S., where the same phone would sell for $1,249, according to the Apple website.

And that’s just on one site. Other retailers in China are also putting their iPhones on sale. Sunion, an Apple re-seller, was advertising 700 yuan off for both the 128GB and 256GB versions of the iPhone XR. E-commerce site Pinduoduo, which allows third-parties to sell products, also had hefty discounts across all of the latest iPhone models.

Apple’s issues in China are down to two major factors, experts and local consumers say: It got its pricing wrong, and it has failed to introduce features to excite consumers in a forward-thinking technology market. Now, analysts said, competitors have taken market share in the premium smartphone space.

The euro surged to a high of $1.1581 overnight, its highest level since mid-October before trimming some of its gains and settling at $1.153, broadly steady on the day. The surge in the euro took some traders by surprise who had added some big stop losses around the $1.15 levels, forcing them to unwind their positions and prompting further euro gains. That has lifted China’s offshore yuan to its highest level since August along with recent assurances from Beijing of further fiscal boosts to the

The euro consolidated gains on Thursday after posting its biggest daily jump in more than six months, having cleared some key market levels after Fed minutes signaled a more cautious approach towards further rate hikes.

With the euro broadly hemmed in a $1.12-$1.15 range over the last three months, the dovish minutes gave dollar bears a further excuse to buy the euro, propelling it past a 100-day moving average, a level it hasn’t traded above in more than three months.

The euro surged to a high of $1.1581 overnight, its highest level since mid-October before trimming some of its gains and settling at $1.153, broadly steady on the day.

“This is more of a dollar bearish story causing some stop losses to be triggered around key levels rather than a rerating of the European story,” said Kamal Sharma, director of G10 FX strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London.

The surge in the euro took some traders by surprise who had added some big stop losses around the $1.15 levels, forcing them to unwind their positions and prompting further euro gains. Data out of Europe has been fairly tepid. French industrial production fell more than expected in November while Swedish private sector production data was fairly flat.

Minutes from the Fed’s Dec. 18-19 meeting showed that several policymakers were in favour of the U.S. central bank keeping rates steady this year.

“This drop in the dollar is an overdue correction following a surprisingly robust few weeks despite the massive collapse in U.S. rate expectations,” said Ulrich Leuchtmann, a currency strategist at Commerzbank.

China and the United States have extended trade talks in Beijing, boosting oil prices and broader sentiment.

That has lifted China’s offshore yuan to its highest level since August along with recent assurances from Beijing of further fiscal boosts to the slowing economy.

The yuan has breached the key 6.8 per dollar level in both onshore and offshore trade.

Commodity currencies such as the Canadian dollar have been the biggest beneficiaries of improving risk sentiment this week. It fetched C$1.3230, hovering close to its highest level in more than a month, helped by the rebound in oil prices.

The dollar index rose .09 percent at 95.30, after losing 0.7 percent on Wednesday. It has weakened in four out of the last five sessions as traders wager that US interest rates will stay steady in 2019.

Baidu’s chief executive Robin Li had a cold warning for employees as they started 2019. “Winter is coming,” Li warned in a letter sent to staff at the Chinese search engine Wednesday, according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP). He counseled that economic restructuring is “as cold and real as winter to every company” but said this would also provide opportunities to Baidu. Baidu – often seen as China’s Google – was founded by Li in 2000 and makes most of its revenue from adverti

Baidu’s chief executive Robin Li had a cold warning for employees as they started 2019.

“Winter is coming,” Li warned in a letter sent to staff at the Chinese search engine Wednesday, according to a report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

He counseled that economic restructuring is “as cold and real as winter to every company” but said this would also provide opportunities to Baidu.

“Only when the year grows cold do we see the qualities of the pine and the cypress,” Li wrote, referencing a Chinese proverb about evergreen plants. “It’s high time that Baidu stepped forward as a platform company,” he added, according to the SCMP report.

Li also said that Artificial intelligence (AI) would help Baidu’s customers bring down costs, as the “historical transformation of AI is penetrating various industries, unleashing enormous growth potential and room for upgrade.”

The China-U.S. trade war is taking its toll, with growth estimates for China cut from 6.5 percent to 6.3 percent for 2019 with companies including Apple, Ford and Intel concerned about the country’s economic health.

Baidu – often seen as China’s Google – was founded by Li in 2000 and makes most of its revenue from advertising. It posted a 27 percent growth in third-quarter revenue in October to 28.2 billion yuan ($4.11 billion), and Li’s staff letter said Baidu’s 2018 revenue had exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.6 billion).

China’s movie box office revenue rose 9 percent in 2018 to 60.98 billion yuan ($8.87 billion), state media reported, a slower pace than the 13.45 percent clocked for the previous year. Domestic films recorded ticket sales of 37.9 billion yuan in 2018, accounting for 62 percent of the total box office, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Monday, citing data from the State Film Administration. Domestic films in 2017 accounted for 54 percent of total box office. China is the second-largest

Domestic films recorded ticket sales of 37.9 billion yuan in 2018, accounting for 62 percent of the total box office, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Monday, citing data from the State Film Administration.

Domestic films in 2017 accounted for 54 percent of total box office.

China is the second-largest movie market globally after the United States, though it already has more total movie screens after years of rapid expansion in theater networks.

The number of movie screens reached 60,079 across the country, an increase of 9,303 from 2017, Xinhua said. That compares to just over 40,000 screens in the United States, according to data from U.S.-based National Association of Theatre Owners.

China, which is on track to eventually overtake the North America film market, has become an increasingly important region for global producers looking to pump up their box office returns, despite a quota on imported films and strict censorship.

China has been seeking to promote home-grown productions to rival imported Hollywood films. But several big-budget Chinese films have flopped while more modest productions have done well, highlighting the challenges China faces.

Earnings growth at China’s industrial firms in November fell for the first time in nearly three years in the face of slackening domestic and external demand, highlighting rising risks to the world’s second-largest economy. Industrial profits fell 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 594.8 billion yuan ($86.33 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website on Thursday. For the first eleven months, profits at industrial firms rose 11.8 percent from the same period

Earnings growth at China’s industrial firms in November fell for the first time in nearly three years in the face of slackening domestic and external demand, highlighting rising risks to the world’s second-largest economy.

The gloomy data points to a further loss of economic momentum as a trade dispute with the United States piles pressure on China’s vast manufacturing sector and as firms, bracing for a tough year ahead, shelve their investment plans, executives say.

Industrial profits fell 1.8 percent in November from a year earlier to 594.8 billion yuan ($86.33 billion), the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on its website on Thursday. It marked the first decline since December 2015. For the first eleven months, profits at industrial firms rose 11.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to 6.1 trillion yuan, slowing from a 13.6 percent increase in January-October.

The decline in profits largely reflected slowing growth in sales and producer prices as well as rising costs, He Ping of the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data. Economists expect earnings to continue to worsen next year, weighed down by smaller gains in industrial prices in the face of cooling demand, with some even warning of the risk of deflation.

In November, China’s factory price growth slowed to the weakest pace in two years as domestic demand lost further momentum.

The dollar slipped in Asia on Tuesday as U.S. Treasury yields fell to three-month lows, a sign some investors were wagering the Federal Reserve would slow the pace of its rate hikes. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.94 percent on Tuesday, its lowest level since mid September. “Falling U.S. yields are a negative for the dollar, especially versus the major currencies,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at NAB. Catril added that U.S. Treasury yields are near crucial technical

The dollar slipped in Asia on Tuesday as U.S. Treasury yields fell to three-month lows, a sign some investors were wagering the Federal Reserve would slow the pace of its rate hikes.

The weakness in the dollar comes against the backdrop of a temporary truce in the US-China trade conflict, which has bolstered investor confidence in riskier currencies versus the safe-haven greenback.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.94 percent on Tuesday, its lowest level since mid September. The difference in yield between the U.S. 2-year and 10-year tightened to its smallest since July 2007.

The two-10-year yield curve is a key focus for investors as an inversion is seen as predictor of a U.S. recession. A yield curve is said to be inverted when yields on longer-dated maturity bonds are lower than shorter-dated maturity bonds.

“Falling U.S. yields are a negative for the dollar, especially versus the major currencies,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior currency strategist at NAB.

Catril added that U.S. Treasury yields are near crucial technical support levels, a break of which could add further pressure on U.S. yields and the dollar.

The dollar index, a gauge of its value versus six major peers, was off 0.23 percent at 96.8.

The dollar had been supported for most of 2018 by a robust U.S. economy and a relatively hawkish Fed, which is widely expected to raise its policy interest rate later this month.

Markets have priced in an 87 percent probability of a rate hike at the Fed’s Dec. 18-19 meeting.

The dollar came under pressure last week when the market took comments from Fed Chair Jerome Powell as signalling a slower pace of rate hikes.

A more dovish tone from the Fed last week has led markets to question how many times the central bank will hike rates in 2019.

“Given data remains strong, we think the Fed will hike twice in 2019 and that’s more than what the market is pricing in right now…we remain moderately bullish on the dollar,” said Nick Twidale, chief operating officer at Rakuten Securities.

Currencies such as the Chinese yuan, which were battered in the US-China trade war, are expected to trade stronger versus the greenback in the coming weeks as investor sentiment improves.

The dollar fell 0.5 percent against the offshore yuan to 6.8375. On Monday, it lost 1.07 percent, its steepest percentage fall since Aug. 25.

“For now, it seems China has got the best out of G20 and we expect the yuan to remain supported,” added Twidale.

However, he warned that markets need to see a further easing in trade tensions for the risk-on rally to continue.

The Australian dollar gained 0.3 percent in Asian trade at $0.7376. The Reserve Bank of Australia kept its policy cash rate unchanged on Tuesday in a widely expected move.

The yen traded at 113.13 to the dollar, with the greenback losing 0.4 percent versus the Japanese currency.

Elsewhere, sterling was gained 0.2 percent to trade at $1.2744 due to broad dollar weakness. On Monday, the pound fell below $1.27 for the first time since Oct. 31.

Sterling has posted losses for three consecutive weeks as traders bet that British Prime Minister Theresa May will not be able to pass her Brexit deal through parliament on Dec. 11.

Trade war or not, one thing is clear, according to many experts: The global importance of the Chinese yuan seems destined to rise. Strategists and economists say flows in the currency will grow over the long term if China continues to gradually open its financial system and further pushes use of the yuan internationally. HSBC, meanwhile, said in a report released Thursday that markets have been focused on the trade war between China and the United States as the main factor affecting the yuan. Bu

Trade war or not, one thing is clear, according to many experts: The global importance of the Chinese yuan seems destined to rise.

Strategists and economists say flows in the currency will grow over the long term if China continues to gradually open its financial system and further pushes use of the yuan internationally.

But it won’t all be smooth sailing, and a gap in Chinese authorities’ willingness to allow more funds into the country is likely to remain.

Chi Lo, senior economist for Greater China at BNP Paribas Asset Management in Hong Kong, said that the yuan will become more globally important as China further allows foreign capital into the country through selective financial opening and pursues its Belt and Road Initiative trade project, part of a policy to strengthen the country’s international standing.

“So if you look along that direction there’s no way the yuan can be a weak currency, otherwise people won’t accept it and it cannot be a global currency if it’s a weak currency in the long term,” Lo told CNBC on Monday, projecting about a time frame of two or three decades.

HSBC, meanwhile, said in a report released Thursday that markets have been focused on the trade war between China and the United States as the main factor affecting the yuan. But, it said, China’s opening of its financial markets is “probably the more important and enduring influence” on the currency.

“The (yuan) will be increasingly driven by capital account flows, and not just trade-related flows,” the bank said.